Heavenly - Write in detail about the ways in which the actors used the set.

Heavenly

Synopsis –

The story consist of three characters, Liam, Scott, and Steven. It is about the way the three men live their lives in heaven. At the beginning they are not aware of the luxuries they are able to receive in Heaven. Throughout their discussions in heaven they tell the story of how they were killed. There were hints all the way through the play to show us that one of the characters was not dead for example:- when Scott picked up the box of cigarettes they were empty but when Liam, and Steven looked at them they were full, and he had no name tag on his dressing gown. Until the end, the play is about them coming to terms with heaven and they constantly discuss their death and past lives. At the end of the play, they talk about the exact cause of their deaths which is when one of the characters fall off a cliff, and as the other tries to help he also falls, and they then realize that Scott is holding onto them to save them from drowning in the sea. So, overall, the whole time they were in heaven, the three characters were still at the scene where they had fallen and once they had realized this Steven and Liam were persuading Scott to let them go and go back home, which in the end he did.

Write in detail about the ways in which the actors used the set.

At the very beginning of the play, there is a blackout and nobody is on the set but suddenly one light above the settee comes on and shows Steven and Liam hanging off the edge of a settee that was suspended on the back wall and this was to take us back to the past to show us that they were hanging off a cliff. This is also the way the actors enter heaven and at this point, none of the characters are wearing any clothes because their robes are awaiting them.

The walls were made to look like mattresses with normal buttons on the material and throughout the play, there were plastic poles that were retractable in the wall and this gave us a different image. I think this was done to portray the image of the cliff and the characters trying to escape from the sea by climbing up it. This could also be to make the audience think that the characters are still at the scene of the accident.

There were seams in between the mattresses and these were used to provide the characters with some ...

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The walls were made to look like mattresses with normal buttons on the material and throughout the play, there were plastic poles that were retractable in the wall and this gave us a different image. I think this was done to portray the image of the cliff and the characters trying to escape from the sea by climbing up it. This could also be to make the audience think that the characters are still at the scene of the accident.

There were seams in between the mattresses and these were used to provide the characters with some of their props, for example, the snow white costume that Liam wore to imitate the girl that Scott had a crush on at school. This gave the audience the image that the characters were able to obtain anything they wanted while they were in heaven.

There is one settee in the middle of the floor where at points through the play, all three characters tried to fit on it when the settee was really only intended to be sat on by two of the characters. This again, indicated that one of the characters was not supposed to be in heaven.

There was a small black box on the ceiling that contained the pizza and when they were talking about their favourite toppings, the pizza dropped as if from nowhere.

As a member of the audience, I think I responded to the play really well. I was constantly thinking about what was going on in the play and trying to figure out reasons why some of the things happened when they did. I found this play very funny but also some parts shocked me and made me feel sad. I felt sad at the end when Steven and Liam told Scott he had to let go and return to normal life. Throughout the play, the characters use a lot of choreographic movements which are done in slow motion to help tell the story. While this is happening, Liam is telling the story out loud and I think both of these things are done to make you think hard about what is really happening and to get you involved in the story line. At one point, Steven had a cap gun that he kept firing and this made the audience jump because the first time, the shot was incorporated in the music but then he shot the gun and it made a very loud bang. Steven then held the gun in the face of Scott and it kept the audience wondering if he was actually going to fire it. He was doing this because he was telling the story of killing all baby’s who would grow up like Hitler because he wants to do something good if he is ever able to return back to normal life.

At the very beginning, when the two characters first appear in heaven, nobody

knows they are there and nobody sees them arrive on the set. This is done as a

humorous gesture.

Liam:-

Liam played the part of a stupid comical character, who I think was the entertainer through the show. He kept showing the audience the inner child in him and he did this by acting stupid and foolish. He shows us that he was very close to the brothers, Scott and Steven, and I think the brothers reminded Liam of his parents. Liam was very good at physical comedy for example at one point he dresses up in a snow white outfit where he pretends to be the girl that Scott had a crush on. He does this very well and his facial expressions showed us his girly side!! Throughout the play Liam looked as though he had a upsetting past and that he wasn’t really cared for and was very lonely.

Scott:-

Scott was very different to the other two. He was very funny with the beginning nudity scenes, but was extremely good with the whole sadness, serious expressions. He made these feelings clear with very simple things which were very affective for example the use of silence was used well. The ending showed Scott in the best view as he looked very lonely and sad as his brother and friend persuaded him to let them go and go home. He looked as if he let them down and there was nothing he could do about it.

2 moments in the play

The ending which shows the 2 characters, Liam and Steven, who are dead. These characters are in a position on the wall and they made it look very relaxed but was probably quite painful, and uncomfortable. These 2 characters were undressed from their robes bringing our imaginations back to the original scene. Dry ice was pumped over the top of the wall and fell down in front of the characters. This was made to look like water to show the original scene where they were drowning. A subtle blue light was used at the end to show the coldness of the scene, this light and dry ice made the audience feel involved and part of that scene, with some sad feelings. There was also pre-recorded music of the sea also to get us, the audience, into the mood of things. Scott, was then sat on the settee fully dressed in his original clothes looking sad, and emotional as if he was about to leave.

The next image was when the three characters had climbed up the wall and were doing a choreographical routine on the settee suspended on the wall. This settee was made to look like it was a mirror image of the settee on the floor which was a good theatrical image. This means that everything is being reversed, such as gravity. In this scene, the characters were doing choreographical movements with their legs which was very effective yet I thought it was unnecessary and pointless, as it was not really anything to do with the story. Their legs were being crossed and waved around like a dance and it was very in time with the music. They had obviously practiced this a lot as it was done perfectly.

Overall, I really enjoyed the play and thought it was very funny. The actors were very good and I thought they portrayed the story really well.